How did the universal Goddess of Justice transform in Turkey?

Last week, I watched the broadcast on Mr. Yılmaz Özdil’s YouTube channel. While explaining the historical turning point of injustice in Turkey, Mr. Yılmaz Özdil highlighted that this was actually carried out through a symbolic event. That was the strange, Turkish-style Themis statue in front of the Constitutional Court.

In my opinion, the real decline in justice and the rule of law in Turkey actually began in 2003, the year the AK Party came to power. However, when the new Constitutional Court (AYM) building was constructed, I was a Supreme Court Prosecutor at the time and witnessed the unveiling of the Turkish-style Themis statue firsthand. Indeed, the placement of this statue in front of the AYM, as I describe below, caused laughter among my colleagues back then. On one hand, we did not understand why the Goddess of Justice, symbolized in the same way everywhere across the world, was being changed by the then-AYM President Haşim Kılıç, who was the first AYM president who was not a legal professional. On the other hand, perhaps because he was constantly criticized for not being a lawyer, he wanted to do something provocative to draw attention. Who knows! Now, I want to record this same event in writing for history.

Themis is known in mythology as the Goddess of Justice. Indeed, from Japan to Paraguay, from Iceland to Australia, she has been depicted in front of courthouses all over the world in more or less the same way. This goddess contains symbols. First and foremost, the Goddess of Justice is a virgin. She holds a sword in one hand and scales in the other. Her eyes are also blindfolded. Being a virgin symbolizes her independence, the scales symbolize the fair distribution of justice, the sword symbolizes the deterrent power of justice, and the blindfold symbolizes the impartiality of justice. It is the symbol of universal law everywhere in the world. All legal professionals know this. For example, the Goddess of Justice statue in front of the Istanbul Çağlayan Courthouse is in a universal style, just as the Goddess of Justice in many other courthouses is of universal proportions. The only exception is the Turkish-style goddess in front of the AYM…

At that time, the old AYM building in Ankara was quite small. And because the workload of the AYM was constantly increasing, the building was not enough. The AYM's duty regarding the right to individual application had not yet been defined, but a great European Union atmosphere was being created in our country, and it was being voiced that the right to individual application would also come to the AYM in this sense. For these reasons, they built and opened the new Constitutional Court building at the end of March 2009. Everything up to this point was normal. Except for one thing! There was a statue of a woman in front of the building. However, this statue was very different from the universal Themis woman. If she didn't have scales and a sword in her hands, no one would believe it was a Themis statue. Because the woman statue in front of the AYM was wearing baggy trousers (şalvar), was pot-bellied, wearing slippers, and had beaded necklaces. Her eyes were not closed; they were open, looking around restlessly. Apparently, the non-lawyer AYM President wanted to make a Turkish-style justice statue. Because the universal Themis woman, who was depicted with her eyes blindfolded so that she would remain impartial and the scales of justice would not falter, had turned into a sharp-eyed woman in the Turkish-style example. In other words, she was practically saying, 'I don't look at who the person I am judging is,' but on the contrary, she was saying, 'I see who the person I am judging is, and I will pass judgment accordingly.'

Actually, it was appropriate for the spirit of the time. Because they had just seen the AKP Closure Case. This political party, which was clearly the focus of anti-secular activities with the existing evidence, should normally have been closed, but it was not closed by the AYM by a one-vote margin, and the party, which it accepted as the focus of anti-secular activities, was only given the penalty of cutting half of its treasury aid. On the other hand, our country was witnessing the liquidation of the Turkish army through dozens of political cases such as the Ergenekon and Balyoz cases, and illegal wiretappings.

The goddess of justice had truly opened her eyes.

This Turkish-style Goddess of Justice statue was commissioned by Turkey's first non-lawyer AYM President. Of course, since he was not a lawyer, he probably did not know what the statue he commissioned symbolized. The Turkish-style Themis statue is still standing in front of the AYM. Because the AYM has not been able to elect a lawyer as President since that date. As such, that statue remained there. Last week, the latest AYM President, who was elected for 4 years, was also a person who was appointed as a member to the AYM by our President, who was a civil servant at the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, and who was not a law school graduate. Of course, I do not expect the statue to be removed.

Looking at it from this perspective, it is impossible not to agree with Mr. Yılmaz Özdil. Ever since we put the universal Goddess of Justice Themis statue aside and invented a Turkish-style Goddess of Justice in its place, justice has become hard to find in our country. In other words, this statue became the starting point of Turkey's history of injustice.